What Would You Change About… Triad Wars?

With our newest “What Would You Change About…?” we’re heading to Hong Kong and steppinhttp://www.mmozone.com/triad-wars.html" target="_blank">Triad Wars from United Front Games. The game is a multiplayer online action game (not an MMO) where players build up their own Turf, engage in battles with rival gangs and have a huge sandbox world to explore and engage in truly cinematic and brutal combat. The game offers a lot, with many positive aspects that we saw in the original Sleeping Dogs single player game, but after putting in our time we have to say that there’s a few things we’d love to see changed about the game.

PVP - There is no real PVP. Players can build up their own Turf, building criminal rackets to make money, recruiting gang members to protect them, upgrading their defenders, adding in boosts (in the form of Favors) to give them perks, there’s a whole system around the Turf feature. However, when it comes to actually taking on someone’s turf in a Raid, you’ll never see the other player and it’s all AI automation, including the rival players “Enforcer” character being controlled by the game. The multiplayer element is constantly a faceless rival that you can’t interact with in any way.. and that’s a shame. We want to see more actual PVP conflict, whether in the form of players being able to step into their own Enforcers shoes when a Raid is happening (providing they are online and free) or even stepping up a gear and making more open world interactions, making it an MMO and implementing faction wars (given that players do choose from three different Triad gangs at character creation).

Player Co-Op - Sometimes it’s good to work together. Whilst PVP is fun and definitely has its place, we understand it’s not for everyone and comes with its own set of issues. Co-Op is something potentially in the pipeline, and that’s a good thing as right now the game really suffers in the multiplayer element and feels like a single player game at every step (and in all honest Grand Theft Auto, whilst not free, is a much better option when it comes to a single player sandbox). Working together with players to take on a Raid is a step in the right direction, but having someone to enjoy the open sandbox element with would be even more fun, both jumping out of a car and gunning down the local park for the lols… oh the joys of being a psychopath.

Restrictions for Open World - There’s lack of reward for exploration and playing sandbox. We’re not expecting badges or anything along those lines, finding cool places is a reward in its own right; stealing top of the line cars, beating up a pedestrian to mug them or holding up a vendor… none of this is really possible, yes you can steal cars and you can beat people up and you can put bullets in a vendor.. but there’s no reward for it, you don’t get XP (Face), you don’t get cash, everything is there for the sole purpose of being blown up or executed for the lols. The sandbox environment itself is amazing, some really great areas and high speed pursuits through the streets are always a joy, but it just feels like it’s there and that people exist only to get in the way when you’re driving at speed or to tempt you into going on a psychotic rampage. We’d like to see some reward for our murder spree.

A Companion App - A way to deal with the minutiae without being in game. Whilst the main component of the game focuses on exploring the city and picking up Operations and Raids for rewards, the other part of the game revolves around building up and managing your turf. When we log in to the game then honestly we just want to get into fights and enjoy the action that they bring, not deal with our real estate. To have access to your Turf through a companion app would be a great and welcomed addition, let you micromanage when you have some spare minutes, be able to actively react to Raids on your turf and manage your Favors to improve your defenses giving players much more involvement.

Reputation/Notoriety System - All is too easily forgotten. We really like tearing up Hong Kong and going on a crazy killing rampage, the cinematic car chases and flips from blowing out wheels, pulling up next to a police car and unloading a full machine magazine into the cab and watching the bloody ragdolls bounce about is an endless source of fun (albeit pretty brutal and makes us question our own morals). You can go on some pretty amazing kill fests, heading to the quiet serene park whilst people sit down and dine in the sun and ploughing through them all in a truck to the screams of hysteria. Then the police chase comes, as it always does when you play in the sandbox for too long, it builds up and builds up, riot vans chase you everywhere, machine gun fire tries to mow you down and the only way to stop it is die, get caught (neither of which we are preferential to) or evading them by getting out of their awareness range. Once you do… the police have forgotten about you. Whilst on your rampage you should build up a HUGE notoriety, you are enemy number one for the city; the patrols should stay out looking for you until the timer goes down all the way. The police might not chase you as relentlessly as they do when in pursuit, but they should be on the streets, particularly where you were last seen, and if they see you then it should be all hell breaking out once again.

So that’s what we’d change with Triad Wars, but more importantly what do you believe should be changed? What do you think could/should be added to improve the game? What would you add to your own personal wish list? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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